Without acknowledging the wrong information from the previous tweet,Ms Palaszczuk changed her language about the British rollout from “won’t allow” AstraZeneca to “offering alternatives” to AstraZeneca.
Professor Wei Shen Lim,quoted in the article Ms Palaszczuk originally misconstrued,said:“As COVID-19 rates continue to come under control,we are advising that adults aged 18-39 years with no underlying health conditions are offered an alternative to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine,if available,and if it does not cause delays in having the vaccine.”
The emotive language from Queensland against the AstraZeneca vaccine,which included Dr Young saying,“I don’t want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who,if they got COVID,probably wouldn’t die,” has been criticised by some health experts.
Australian Medical Association vice-president Chris Moy labelled Dr Young’s comments “inappropriate”.
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) amended its advice last month to list Pfizer as the preferred vaccine for people under 60 years of age because of an ultra-rare blood clotting condition associated with AstraZeneca.
The advice is based on Australia’s current risk matrix and could change if AstraZeneca became the least risky option for young people when stacked against some future outbreak or variant.
AMA Queensland president Chris Perry said Dr Young was doing a “great job” but also cautioned against anyone trashing what is universally considered an effective and low-risk vaccine.
Referring to arecent News Corp article,Dr Perry said of Ms Palaszczuk’s incorrect tweet:“The Premier’s got 18 people looking after her social media and media in general,so I’ll leave that to her advisors”.